The winter 2013 issue of Great Boards is now available and features articles on recommended agenda items for a board’s executive compensation committee and considerations for boards when selecting their next board chair.

In “Agenda for the Executive Compensation Committee: A Guide for Minimizing Regulatory and Reputational Risk,” contributing author Timothy J. Cotter, Managing Director, Sullivan, Cotter and Associates, discusses 10 issues executive compensation committees should be addressing to proactively manage risk in the current environment. Governance expert Barry Bader, in his commentary “Choosing a Board Chair Amid Health Care Transformation,” discusses the rapid pace of change in health care organizations and six considerations boards should take into account when choosing their next board chair.

Determining peer groups for setting executive compensation, a key agenda item cited in Timothy J. Cotter’s article in the winter 2013 Great Boards, is discussed in more detail in a new article now available on the Great Boards website. In “Balancing Act: The Compensation Committee’s Role in Peer Group Selection,” authors Bruce Greenblatt, Michelle Johnson and Sally LaFond of Sullivan, Cotter and Associates, discuss key considerations for appropriately selecting peer groups. They also provide a decision tree against which board Executive Compensation Committees can compare their processes and learn more about best practices.

A new tool has been added to the Great Boards website—a case example of how a health care organization board can begin transforming its practices to govern more effectively in times of transformational change. Using the AHA’s Center for Healthcare Governance study, Governance Practices in an Era of Health Care Transfor­mation, the case example illustrates how a board can identify governance practices critical to future success and determine steps to implement them.